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THE

Scots Magazine,

AND

EDINBURGH LITERARY MISCELLANY,

FOR SEPTEMBER 1808.

Description of MAULDSLIE CASTLE. MAU AULDSLIE CASTLE, the seat of the Earl of Hyndford, is beautifally situated on the banks of the Clyde, in a fine lawn, surrounded by rising grounds. It lies in the parish of Carluke, about four miles from Lamark, in the road to Hamilton and Glasgow. The country round may vie, for beauty and fertility, with any in Scotland The mansion was built upon a plan by the late Robert Adams, which is generally considered as the most compleat plan of a modern castle of any designed by that celebrated architect. The hill, or law, of Maulds lie, is remarkable for the antiquities found in it, which consist of cairns, in which are found urns, containing hu

man bones.

SKETCH of LISBON.

(From Semple's Travels.)

THIS city can never cease to be a place of consequence whilst trade and commerce flourish in Europe. Had it not been for political events and considerations, it would probably have become the capital of Spain, there being no situation possessed of equal advantages in the whole Peninsula, as it may be called, of Europe, south of the Pyrences. It is built upon several hills, the number of which

it is not easy to ascertain amidst so many buildings; but which the natives say amount to seven, like those of ancient Rome. It may rather be said to stand upon an arm of the sea, into which the Tagus falls, than upon the Tagus itself; that river not being navigable even for boats in all its long course, till within twelve or fourteen fore the town being salt, and frequentleagues of Lisbon, and the water bely so rough, as to endanger the ships

at anchor there. The inhabitants of Lisbon, however, who are jealous of the honour of their river, affirm this to be a frivolous distinction, and that in the time of the rains, an immense body of fresh water is here brought down, so as often to cause more damage to the shipping than is ever occasioned by the wind and tide from the sea. However that may be, the situation is admirable, and the town, full of churches, palaces, domes, and spires, rising from the edge of the water up the ascents and over the tops of so many hills, presents from the bay one of the noblest views that can be imagined, and superior perhaps to that of any city in the world. In whatever situation we view it during our approach, it is imposing, but when we land the delusion vanishes. The streets are badly paved and full of filth; the houses, with here and there a latticed window, have a melancholy appearance, and the inhabitants, some

in

in rags, and the remainder in darkcoloured clothes, render the whole still more gloomy.

The part of Lisbon most deserving of attention is that which suffered so severely in the dreadful earthquake of 1755. It is not merely that all the flat at the foot of the amphitheatre of the surrounding hills is rebuilt in a regular manner, and excellently paved; but the ruins of great buildings still remaining on the tops of the heights in the heart of a populous city, have a singular and striking effect. Other nations erect monuments at a great expense, in commemoration of battles, earthquakes, and wide wasting fires. But nothing can speak so home to the heart as these awful remains which stand in perpetual memento to the inhabitants of Lisbon, of what has happened, and may again happen to the city.

The churches and the theatres will naturally first attract the stranger; and the ruins cannot fail to awaken serious reflections. Should he be disposed to continue them, he may ascend one of the hills, on the top of which, surrounded by a high wall, and planted thickly with trees, is the English burying ground. There is always to me something affecting in the sight of the grave of a fellow countryman in a foreign land; how much more when they are crouded so thickly together. Among the many who came here for health and found a grave, lies Henry Fielding, an unrivalled delineator of human life and manners, and whose name will be remembered as long as true humour shall be relished in England. I could here fill up several pages with long inscriptions over the once illustrious dead; but indeed, my good reader, you and I have a long journey before us, and shall therefore leave the drudgery to those who make books. Quitting the burying ground, and keeping the heights, we soon find ourselves on the outskirts of the town, which are composed of very mean

houses, and inhabited by a race among
whom cleanliness in all its branches
appears wholly neglected, and where
swine and miserable dogs are stretch-
ed out upon heaps of filth before eve-
ry door. Fortunately this does not
last long, and we presently come into
the open fields on the north-west side
of the town. The country, at this sea-
son, looks brown and parched up, and
is wholly destitute of inclosures; a
number of country seats, however, at
a little distance, surrounded by trees,
and intermingled with vineyards, must,
immediately after the rainy season,
form a beautiful prospect. On the
heights to the left is a range of wind-
mills, which being, I suppose, similar
to those used in Spain, tend to illus-
trate a passage in Don Quixote. Judg-
ing from those on the banks of the
Thames, and throughout England, I
had always hitherto considered the ac-
count of the battle with the wind-
mills, as too extravagant even for that
extravagant knight but those of this
country being little, round, sturdy
fellows, of about ten or twelve feet in
height, might pass for the ghosts of
giants, even to a sober English pea-
sant, on a moonlight night. Passing
onwards, we come to a deep and nar-
row valley, over which is thrown the
noblest aqueduct which has been erec-
ted in Europe since the time of the
Romans. It is, perhaps, the last also
that will be erected for the sole end of
carrying water for common purposes;
the discovery, that fluids when con-
veyed in pipes will rise to nearly their
level, superseding the use of such stu-
pendous structures. It consists of
thirty-five arches, the centre one of
immense height, but they are greatly
too narrow in proportion, when view-
ed from a little distance. The inha-
bitants of Lisbon boast that they are
the highest single arches in the world,
which may be true; but a double or
triple row would have been equally
useful and far more elegant. A no-
ble pathway, bordered by a wall of

solid blocks of stone, leads across the summit, nearly on a level with the water, which makes a perpetual.running sound on the inside. This sound is echoed along the arched stone roof of the aqueduct, and excites a pleasing sensation in the mind of the passenger, who turning to the other hand, and looking over the parapet, beholds beneath him, at a great depth, the stony bed of a considerable stream, under the center arch, and which, in winter, must run with all the fury of a mountain torrent. Over this stream a bridge is thrown, and a road leads through the valley; the travellers on which, when viewed from above, seem diminished in size to the circumference of their hats. Upon the whole, this aqueduct is justly a national boast among the Portuguese; and in a country where so few great undertakings, not connected with religion, are carried to perfection, it stands like a giant amidst pigmies and abortions. It is singular that the same nation have erected in America the only great, perhaps the only, aqueduct which exists in all that continent. It is near the town of Rio Janeiro, and is thrown across a valley wider than that near Lisbon. I only saw this last at some little distance, yet I cannot help thinking that the two were constructed at no great distance of time from each other, and that whichever was the Erst, served as a model to the second.

At Belem is a castle, and a battery running out into the water, the cannon of which, in the present circumstances, sufficiently command the entrance of the harbour. Their alliance with England, however, is the best bulwark of Lisbon against an attack by sea; yet they talk of their navy as being second to that of Great Britain, if not in numbers, at least in courage and manoeuvres. Untried merit, when much boasted of, may always be suspected; and of all the nations that I have yet seen, the Portuguese appear to have the smallest reason for boast

ing; yet it must be allowed that their frigates are handsomely modelled, and have every exterior appearance of excellence.

Among the peasantry who come in from the country, especially on Sundays, it is easy to observe a number of particulars in dress and manners which must be referred to a Celtic origin.Instead of hats they frequently wear caps or bonnets; the ancient plaid, too warm to be carried in this climate as a cloak, is converted into a partycoloured sash, which they wear round the middle, and in which they uniformly carry a dirk or long knife; and their favourite instrument of music is the bagpipe, adorned with ribbons, exactly similar to that used in the highlands of Scotland. To the sound of this very ancient instrument, two or three of them together dance a kind of reel, or if the tune be slow and solemn, the piper walks backward and forward amidst a silent and attentive crowd. In their lively dances they raise their hands above the head and keep time with their castanets. The Scottish Highlanders observe exactly the same practice, and I am fully persuaded that their strong snapping of the fingers is in imitation of the sound of the castanet.

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principal great roads from Madrid to the chief towns of the Provinces, will be found very convenient. Many of the distances are stated from actual measurement, others are taken from the computed Leagues of the country, as estimated for the march of Soldiers or hire of Travelling Horses, some of which have been corrected from the observations of the late M. Mechain, in his Trigonometrical Survey of Spain, in which he was employed, as well as

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120 176 89181140 160 140 58106 159 56 123 Santiago

37150140 23 22 35 32112 88 68138148156 Seville

1

51114 66 88 50 54 41 68 12 53 92 72112 76 Toledo

110 55 86120 74 73 64107 51 32133 72157 99 59 Valencia -Zara113 52 52134 100 105 92 85 50 80 111 27125125 62 45 gossa.

This table represents the number of Leagues between all the capital towns of the Provinces or Kingdoms, and the Metropolis or court of Spain, Madrid. If it is desired to know the distance between Badajos and Madrid, the angle of the column under

the former, and immediately opposite the latter, gives 63 Leagues, or 252 English miles; if from Badajos to Zaragossa, we find 113 Leagues, or 452 English miles; and so with all the others.

N. B. The distances in this Table

are

are taken on the carriage roads, and not the bridle roads, which are shorter, more mountainous, and generally impassable to any thing but asses, males, sheep, or black cattle.

at present in flower in the large stove of the botanic garden, Leith walk. This plant very rarely shews its racemes of flowers. Professor Martyn, in his new edition of the Gardener's Dictionary, mentions that it flowered at Schoenbrunn, on the Continent, in 1773; but, froin the edition of Mr

Monthly Memoranda in Natural His- Don's Cambridge Catalogue, publish

tory.

Sept. THE "HE weather has been 1,-12. very variable, and upon the whole not the most favourable for

the corn-crops. It now appears, that the long-continued rains in July and August have considerably damaged the wheat crop, especially in East Lothian, and the counties of Berwick and Roxburgh, &c. The stalks and ears of whole fields have been found more or less tainted with the rust, mildew, or blight, i. e. overrun with the minute parasitical fungus, so fully and accurately described and figured by Sir Joseph Barks. But for information on the interesting subject of the inferiority of this year's wheat crop, we must refer our readers to the Farmer's Magazine, where they will find ample details. One writer in that periodical work seems to think that he has discovered one cause of mildew, in the rations of a minute insect which he found infecting the ears of wheat in Berwickshire: the punctures of the insect, he supposes, may afford a nitus to the impalpable seeds of the microscopic fungus above referred to. He has given a magnified sketch of this insect; but this sketch has either been so carelessly drawn, or so carelessly engraved, that the entomologist will endeavour in vain to ascertain even the genus to which it belongs: possibly it may be a Thrips. But whatever the insect may be, we are certainly inclined to consider its presence rather as the consequence than the cause

of mildew.

ope

Sept. 16.-A fine specimen of the Least Fan Palm (corypha minor) is

ed last year, it does not appear to have ever before produced its flower in this country. One reason may be, that, in England, it is generally treated as a green-house plant, but in the botanic garden here, it has been fostered with the heat of the tan-bed in the stove.

Sept. 20.-Mackrel, in considerable numbers, are at present brought to our market. They are taken on the Fife coast, and off Dunbar.

P. S.-Opportunities of examining the nature of the mineral strata over which Edinburgh is built, occur now and then, in the course of digging out foundations for houses, &c. in different situations, and at different elevations of the very unequal surface occupied by the city. To assist future inquirers, we shall, in our Monthly Memoranda, occasionally describe such mineral appearances. Taken individually, such observations cannot be expected to afford much interest; but if they be continued for a due length of time, they may eventually be useful in ascertaining the geognostic relations of the curious rocks which rise into eminences in the immediate neighbourhood, particularly the Castle Rock and the Calton Hill.

During this month, a considerable excavation has been formed on the west side of Nicolson Street, nearly opposite to the Royal Manêge, in order to form cellars below a range of several shops about to be erected there. The principal mineral which has been here exposed, is a variety of Slateclay, or Argillaceous Shistus, a good deal tinged of a brownish-red colour.

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